Kelsey Lydon EDC 102H September 10, 2011 Personal Expertise Statement
For the past eighteen years and ten months of my life, I have been an ardent writer. Even before I was physically capable of putting a pen to paper, fanciful tales and paradoxical plots have blossomed from my imagination. This mode of self-expression has become a major part of my life. To date, I have written two novels and several hundred short stories and poems (the exact number is impossible to calculate). Over the years I have honed my craft, spending my time examining some of history’s greatest novelists and participating in rigorous writing courses offered by my high school. I’ve improved leaps and bounds and will continue to do so every chance I get. In my life, writing is not simply a mode of expression or a hobby. It’s an instinct. Being an only child greatly affected my maturation into a creative and artistic person. I had to forge my own ways of passing the time when not in school with my friends. It started simply enough around age two when, like most children, I began playing “make believe” while my grandmothers babysat me during the day. One of my earliest memories is of my mother and I sitting in my Nana’s kitchen writing a short story. I was perhaps two or three years old and had just come home from preschool. I remember making a story up that day during class and could not wait to come home to write it down. So we sat there in the kitchen the smooth oak dining table with the stained glass chandelier illuminating our workspace. My mother, armed with pen and paper, participated as my scribe. As the words flowed out of me like a raging river of prose, she hurriedly scrawled my story down. Thus, my first masterpiece “The Cat in the Woods” was born. It all started around that age, but I have come a long way since those days. For starters I can now, thankfully, write my own thoughts down. My content matured as well, including everything from romance to murder. My taste for the dramatic grew tremendously. As I progressed through my high school career, I signed up for my first Advanced Placement class about writing and composition. I learned probably the most valuable skill set in my arsenal: how to write a well-versed essay in forty minutes. This talent made school papers much easier for me because I was able to make concise points while maintaining enough detail. I could describe something endlessly if given the chance because I simply love words. Learning to write less and saying it in the most concentrated way is one of the greatest improvements I made in my writing, and I cherish that capability. John Denison, my tenth grade English teacher, inspired most of my progress. His passion for literature and art inspired me to want to be as great as the authors he educated us about. When I write, I channel that enthusiasm and dive in head first and immerse myself in it. He always pushed me and would accept nothing less than my best. I look forward to incorporating my love of literature into my career; I plan to become an English teacher and to hopefully inspire students to express themselves, like Mr. Denison inspired me. Despite my long history of writing stories and novels, I do not plan on publishing any of my work from the past or in the future. My work is like my child; I wish to protect it from the harshness and exploitation of the world. But, like the plot of a great thriller, my intentions may change. Perhaps, one day, my books will line the shelves of Barnes & Noble. AD
EDC 102H
September 10, 2011
Personal Expertise Statement
For the past eighteen years and ten months of my life, I have been an ardent writer. Even before I was physically capable of putting a pen to paper, fanciful tales and paradoxical plots have blossomed from my imagination. This mode of self-expression has become a major part of my life. To date, I have written two novels and several hundred short stories and poems (the exact number is impossible to calculate). Over the years I have honed my craft, spending my time examining some of history’s greatest novelists and participating in rigorous writing courses offered by my high school. I’ve improved leaps and bounds and will continue to do so every chance I get. In my life, writing is not simply a mode of expression or a hobby. It’s an instinct.
Being an only child greatly affected my maturation into a creative and artistic person. I had to forge my own ways of passing the time when not in school with my friends. It started simply enough around age two when, like most children, I began playing “make believe” while my grandmothers babysat me during the day. One of my earliest memories is of my mother and I sitting in my Nana’s kitchen writing a short story. I was perhaps two or three years old and had just come home from preschool. I remember making a story up that day during class and could not wait to come home to write it down. So we sat there in the kitchen the smooth oak dining table with the stained glass chandelier illuminating our workspace. My mother, armed with pen and paper, participated as my scribe. As the words flowed out of me like a raging river of prose, she hurriedly scrawled my story down. Thus, my first masterpiece “The Cat in the Woods” was born. It all started around that age, but I have come a long way since those days. For starters I can now, thankfully, write my own thoughts down. My content matured as well, including everything from romance to murder. My taste for the dramatic grew tremendously.
As I progressed through my high school career, I signed up for my first Advanced Placement class about writing and composition. I learned probably the most valuable skill set in my arsenal: how to write a well-versed essay in forty minutes. This talent made school papers much easier for me because I was able to make concise points while maintaining enough detail. I could describe something endlessly if given the chance because I simply love words. Learning to write less and saying it in the most concentrated way is one of the greatest improvements I made in my writing, and I cherish that capability. John Denison, my tenth grade English teacher, inspired most of my progress. His passion for literature and art inspired me to want to be as great as the authors he educated us about. When I write, I channel that enthusiasm and dive in head first and immerse myself in it. He always pushed me and would accept nothing less than my best.
I look forward to incorporating my love of literature into my career; I plan to become an English teacher and to hopefully inspire students to express themselves, like Mr. Denison inspired me. Despite my long history of writing stories and novels, I do not plan on publishing any of my work from the past or in the future. My work is like my child; I wish to protect it from the harshness and exploitation of the world. But, like the plot of a great thriller, my intentions may change. Perhaps, one day, my books will line the shelves of Barnes & Noble. AD